My colleague Shannon Jammal-Hollemans recently made a powerful statement, saying Christians tend to focus on the Fall at the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, rather than focusing on the Tree of Life. I believe this cuts to the core of the “burden” of injustice, shedding light on the frustrating, paradoxical occurrence of disempowered Jesus followers.

We pray; we lament; we give to relief agencies. But we also struggle to understand why this is happening and who’s to blame. And the TV news channels are quick to serve up all kinds of plausible-sounding answers.

We haven’t been able to think about anything else recently. The images of unarmed protesters in Ferguson facing down cops in riot gear through a haze of tear gas are on loop in our brains. If you’ve been watching the news at all, you know some version of the story: an unarmed 18-year-old African American named Michael Brown was shot by a police officer while he was walking home. The circumstances of the shooting are disputed. Riots and looting ensued and heavily militarized cops rolled in.

The events in Ferguson, Missouri have captivated the world of social media this week. On Saturday afternoon, eighteen year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police while walking home with a friend. A candlelight vigil to remember Brown turned violent on Sunday, leading to looting and more than thirty arrests. Monday and Tuesday saw tensions rise as residents gathered for peaceful demonstrations, demanding the officer’s name be released and details about the incident be made public.

On our Salaam Project Facebook page, the post that has received the most views is one called “We are Iraqi, we are Christian.” The article describes Muslims standing alongside Christians in Baghdad protesting together the persecution of Christians in Mosul by ISIS or Islamic State. This parallels the #WeareN hashtag that is spreading over social media and that was recently highlighted in a post by Phil Reinders.

“If you go to any small town and ask about the local church, it is certain that you will find one…the church has been an important space for all those who have suffered from acts of violence. Listening to them, you can understand how their faith as allowed them to process what has happened and support their acts of resistance,” says Angelica Rincon, reflecting on her work in the Political Advocacy and Historical Memory program.

You’ve most likely read about the unprecedented number of unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S.-Mexican border, more than 50,000 since October of last year, with 40,000 more projected to reach the border by this coming October. That’s more than 245 children showing up at the border each day without their parents.

"It is more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in modern conflict.”* According to the United Nations, women and girls are targeted as a tactic of war to “humiliate, dominate, instill fear in, punish, disperse and/or forcibly relocate members of a community/ethnic group ” around the world. This information provides a lens to understand the news of this month, both at home and around the world.